Suzuki Gixxer – Long Term report

The Suzuki Gixxer has been around for a long time now and still manages to hold the top position in the 150-160cc category. It can be compared to the new Honda Hornet and the Yamaha FZS Fi. We’ve had the Gixxer for a short while now and it’s been a hoot to ride. 

My daily commute from home to office and back is around 35km a day and includes highway and city riding. But the real test of any motorcycle comes in the last few kilometres getting from the highway to our office in Marol at Andheri east in Mumbai. The roads are so bad that you’ll lad up either bottoming the shocks or jumping in the air. Plus you have the ever faithful rickshaw drivers who think they’re in a formula one race. 

Through all this mayhem the Gixxer never fails to put a smile on my face. It’s got so much low end torque that getting through traffic is a synch. On the highway you can feel how linear the power delivery is. Plus the sound of that exhaust makes you feel like you’re riding a bigger motorcycle.

We got a bright blue colour motorcycle that makes it stand out in a crowd. The styling is clearly taken from its bigger brother the Gixxer 1000. Overall the Gixxer looks stunning and performs exceptionally well. 

I recently took the Gixxer for a very long ride from Mumbai to Goa and was pleasantly surprised. Being a small capacity motorcycle I thought it wouldn’t be able to keep up with other more powerful motorcycles. To my delight it managed to not only keep up but didn’t heat up either. 

All throughout my journey the engine purred along nicely and the suspension kept me comfortable. Although there were a few moments where I felt a disc brake at the rear and ABS would have helped. 

The Gixxer was with us only for a short time and had to go back to the company. But I’m looking forward to the new Gixxer with the rear disc brake or even the new SF version with the fuel injection system. My short stint with the Gixxer was a fun one and it didn’t give me any trouble either. It’s still in my opinion the best motorcycle in the 150-160cc category.